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Surely, you are wondering how much printing invoices can cost. A simple calculation, which should take into consideration the necessary human, material and financial resources, could identify significant costs, deducted from the average client profit, that can reduce or even eliminate the income. Furthermore, there are also indirect costs, following the so-called invoicing process such as further manipulation and long term storing of invoices.
Is the invoicing process a mere accounting issue? The larger the number of invoices is, the bigger the number of resources involved in the alleged process. If the number of clients is considerable, the printing, handling and expedition costs become important as well.
An automatic and quick invoicing process has also secondary benefits. For example, natural persons are strongly connected to a stable income, usually a salary. Statistically speaking, they pay the invoices as soon as they come. The sooner an invoice comes, the quicker it gets paid. Also, besides a quicker cash in, the number of debts and effort in collecting the money decreases.
Once the OMF no. 1077 released in 2003 was applied, the legal persons can print invoices in unique samples if they can prove to the legal authority that they fulfill the minimum criteria for availability, confidentiality and integrity of the second sample of the electronically stored invoice. The Ministry’s approval follows the auditing of the invoicing system ran by a CISA certified auditor.
The disadvantages of printing invoices in three samples:
| • |
Lot of time necessary to print them |
| • |
Big
effort in processing
and archiving |
| • |
Additional
storage space |
| • |
Decrease in margins. |
The
benefits resulted from printing
the invoices in unique sample:
| • |
Lower invoicing costs on long term |
| • |
Better
security of the information
system in the entire
company |
| • |
Lower
risk associated with
the invoicing process |
| • |
Higher data availability |
| • |
Information confidentiality |
| • |
Data
integrity |
| • |
Higher responsibility ensured by electronic signature usage. |
According to the Article no. 1 in OMF 1077/2003, the companies must fulfill a series of requirements related to information system architecture as well as to the IT function organization in the entire company.
The requirements regarding the application impose the automatic archiving of the second sample of the invoice on a WORM support and require a digital signature on the invoice. Generally, the invoicing applications can be easily modified to ensure the concordance.
The requirements regarding the architecture of the information system impose a realistic time-framed date of the accounting data in two different locations.
One of the most difficult requirements of the Order no. 1077 released in 2003 is related to the existence of a security plan for the information system. Such a security plan refers to the implementation of the IT Governance system (e.g. CobIT or ISO17799)
It won’t be long until all invoices are stored in electronic layout. The first step within the legislation has already been made as the number of companies that value the benefits of printing the invoice in one sample is increasing. It can be said that the future belongs to the electronic invoice.
Having four IT auditors, out of which two are CISA certified, over 10 years of experience in this field and a wide portfolio of similar missions, Ensight Management Consulting can audit your information system in order to help you access the implementation of the unique-sample invoice system.
Ensight Management Consulting Team |
